AustLit

This work revolves around presenting a famous city through photographs (Oppen) and poetry (Lyssiotis) while avoiding clichés. Oppen does this by photographing without looking into the viewfinder in order to free her photography from any subconscious direction. Lyssiotis’ poetry adds a further psychological dimension to the work.

'I wanted to photograph a famous city but avoid the cliché shots. I wanted to photograph that famous city from being in the city. The best way to do this was to mark out an itinerary and then as I walked take photographs without looking through the view finder so the tourist-mind couldn't edit or compose—it was a way of overriding those clichés! The text by Peter Lyssiotis adds another dimension—the psychological' (Monica Oppen, Bibliotheca Librorum apud Artificem catalogue).